He began doing lithography, painting, and illustrations. He opened a studio in New York in 1885 and began contributing illustrations to magazines including ''
Harper's Magazine, Scribner's Magazine, The Century Magazine, and Collier's''. In 1888 he became a student at
Académie Julian in Paris. He has illustrated
G. W. Curtis'
Prue and I (which established his reputation as a black-and-white artist),
Coppée's
Tales (1891),
Works of Edgar Allan Poe (1894), and
Mary Augusta Ward's'
Eleanor (1900) and
The Marriage of William Ashe (1905). His oil-painting "The Bachelor" received the bronze medal at the
Paris Exposition of 1900. In 1918, he returned to America and began teaching at the
Art Students League in New York. Institutions that have exhibited his work include the
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the
Carnegie Museum, and the
Art Institute of Chicago. Sterner's awards include the Carnegie Prize at the National Academy of Design in 1941. His
New York Times obituary stated that he was perhaps best known for his portraits, but "he was also noted for his nudes, religious subjects, landscapes, still-life work and, in his earlier days, his book and magazine illustrations." {{cite news ==Notable students==